Man was being held after traffic stop; chase ended at man's home

CORPUS CHRISTI - A man led police on a car chase Monday in one of the department's own patrol cars.

But police said he wasn't hard to find: He drove to his parents' house where he was arrested.

The incident began about 10 a.m. when officers pulled over a car in the 2600 block of Gollihar Road because its license plate was covered in dirt and obscured, said Lt. James Gray of the Corpus Christi Police Department.

Police became suspicious while questioning the two occupants and the driver consented to a search of the vehicle, Gray said.

Underneath the passenger seat, officers found items believed to be connected to a recent burglary in the 200 block of Chandler Lane, Cmdr. Mark Schauer said.

"They found paperwork that didn't belong to the men and that's when officers had reason to believe they might have been involved in a burglary," Schauer said.

Officers put the men in separate patrol cars for further investigation.

They were not handcuffed because they were not under arrest at the time, Schauer said.

"That's sort of when things went wrong for us," he said.

The 28-year-old passenger of the car managed to kick through a Plexiglass divider in the patrol car, lock the doors and drive off, police said.

Officers chased the man with assistance from several other law enforcement agencies for about 10 minutes as he made his way to his parents house in the 4300 block of Congressional Drive.

Police scanner traffic indicated the man could hear officers' routes on the police radio during the chase, which included nearly a dozen patrol cars.

Officers arrested the man and took him to the city detention center. The other man was taken into custody at the scene of the initial traffic stop.

John Alaniz was arrested on suspicion of four felonies including possession of body armor, theft of a firearm, evading arrest and theft because of the value of equipment within the patrol car, Gray said. He was being held at the Nueces County Jail. Bail was set at $40,000.